I had never heard of this band before until now. I was at the cheap section in my local record shop when I discovered it, and I bought it blindly. Why? Because of the appealing inferno of a cover art! Even the shopkeeper didn’t know where he’s got it from. Well, this is one of those bands that are, according to metal-archives, active, but haven’t updated their site for nearly three years. Hence, I choose to believe that they are no longer an active band. It’s a shame really, because this is really a damn fun listen. This is Atanatos’ latest outing, and was released in 2005. Beast Awakening was first released as a demo to attract labels before it was rereleased as a full-blown album. They play an exciting mixture of power, thrash and death metal stained with a little black and heavy metal. Imagine something like Follow The Reaper-era Children of Bodom with a touch of the speedy Judas Priest and the average power metal feel. Sounds fun doesn’t it?

Now, before you go all loony over this and expect the next Children of Bodom, I’ll have to tear down your expectations a little. The song-writing on here isn’t anywhere near as blistering, and Atanatos is indeed lacking the insane lead-work. On the other hand, the speed of the bombastic riffs and the balanced use of keyboards to add to the atmosphere are very comparable to their Finnish colleagues. From song number one all the way to the end, Atanatos blast out mad riffs, vicious vocal attacks and a healthy dose of the desired blast-beats. Left For Death’s Cold Embrace cracks out of the speakers with back-breaking intensity. It’s aggressive and fast without ever looking back. The usually silly gang-shouts fit very nicely and are never overdone. Their music can best be described as if you are Noklaj Valujev’s (The Beast) punching bag, as this does nothing but throw heavy punches in your face over and over again. Even the short Sonata Arctica-moment on the title-track sounds angry enough to make Bruce Willis shaky. The Priest-y thrasher Nightcrawler fires of another hail of bullets and the almost epic Torn By Hatred continues the roulette with glimmering keyboards, cool lead work, and the usual blasting skin-beating.

There are many gems to be found here, that’s for sure. However, as always, thrash-y bands tend to stay a little still in terms of variation and creativity. Most of the tunes here are carrying the same beat, same tempo, same intensity and same atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong though, they always sound like they want to rip the pouch of a kangaroo. They could however vary the way they are approaching that in several directions, which would probably lift it a couple of notches in terms of quality and availability. Although this is probably a good reason to dock the bands a good bunch of points, I’ll cut them some slack because they’ve given me the first really fun ride in a while. If you’re an average metalhead who like your power metal with a big spoon of pepper or if you’re a thrasher who is quite fond of mood-setting keyboards mixed in and with mostly harsh vocal work, you definitely shouldn’t let this slip away from your metal-dar, and give them a fair shot. Not as impressive through the first couple of listens, but I have to admit that this becomes more enjoyable after each listen. Recommended.